Kawaii Candy in a Gift Crate

I used to love watching this show called Kawaii International that we found on a cable channel. It was a good way to learn more about Japanese culture plus I found the show just adorable and it was geared toward English speakers so completely accessible. When I was offered a free Japan Crate Holiday Gift Pack through the Amazon Vine program to test out and review, I just had to do it to help me remember that show and add some cuteness to my life. It came with some candy and chocolate, too, so this article on The Chocolate Cult is a unpaid bonus for the company selling them. I hope you enjoy seeing what was inside and our focus on the candy items.

Please note that what I received is unlikely to be what you receive if you should follow our link and buy one; these are random items though all were indeed Japanese. I had to use a translator program on my phone to figure what a lot of these items were. I do mention them in my Amazon review and we spent time opening each one, trying them out, and looking up information about the items, but I'm only looking at the chocolate candy for this blog article.

There were two brands of chocolate in the crate – Bokksu White Chocolate Strawberries (three of them) and Kit Kat Japanese variety (three types). The Bokksu was printed in English but I had to do some searching to learn what the Kit Kat flavors were supposed to be.

Bokksu is a company that makes subscription boxes of Japanese products. Apparently they also make some products of their own like these candies. The box that the entire crate was in was marked "Bokksu Market" which is one of their subscription brands according to their website. These were amazing! The strawberries were infused with white chocolate (not sure how they did that considering the thickness of it usually) then freeze dried. The result as a crunchy, intensely strawberry and creamy sweet flavor that had the texture of a strawberry. As you can see in the photo, they still looked like strawberries.

The Green Kit Kats are probably Rich Green Tea so I asked our tea expert to help me test them. First, we found a language translator to help us read the wrappers. This was the "Rich Matcha" variant so I had been correct in my assumptions. We also discovered that there were four different phrases on the top of the wrappers. This was true for the next Kit Kats as well so I did a side-by-side photo for you. No, I'm not translating what each wrapper says. Since you all know that I'm not a fan of tea, I had one of our acolytes who loves tea test it and this is his opinion: The color is what I would expect from a well-made matcha tea. There is a green tea scent that is coupled with a sweetness. The subtle matcha flavor, and it should be subtle, is there and the white chocolate is also subtle which allowed me to really taste the wafers in Kit Kats for the first time; I liked them. The wafers were crunchy with each chew. I really loved it! 

The Black Kit Kats are probably the Dark Chocolate variety so while I didn't need help I got some any way. However, when we used a translator to read the Japanese we found out that while this is a dark chocolate, they call it "Adult Sweetness" on the wrapper. Yes, less sugar and no added milk ingredients does equal a dark chocolate. The bars are darker than a regular Kit Kat; I accidently had the open bar upside down! The scent reminded me of Hershey's Special Dark which is maybe 55% cacao. The flavor though was more in the 60% range but a touch waxy in both flavor and mouthfeel. I could taste the wafers which were pretty uninspiring but they were crunchy with each chew. I was surprised that there was no sound when I snapped the bars apart because there is even for original Kit Kats. However, I enjoyed these though not as much as dark chocolate variant I've found in the USA.

The pinkish wrapped Kit Kat was more difficult to determine. It could be Strawberry which is still being made, but it might also be Peach. We used a translator to read the wrapper and discovered this is call the "Special Strawberry" which has lower sugar content which is called "adult sweetness". Not only was this pink, but I could see tiny darker areas that turned out to be remnants of the strawberries used when making that coating; it tasted like real strawberries. The scent was intensely strawberry when the wrapper was first open but that faded over a few moments. Again no sound when we broke the bar apart but there was a continual crunch with each chew; it reminded me of another Japanese white chocolate strawberry that I tried recently. The wafers' flavor was weak compared to the intense strawberry cream taste; I'm fine with that because I didn't think the wafers added more than texture and sound. This would be a lovely gift for the strawberry and cream lover in your life.

This was a fun box! Everything, not just the candy, was indeed kawaii so no disappointment in that expectation. My only negative is that there wasn't a list in English to clarify what each item was. I know that would require more work, but I think it would be helpful for all the items and safer for any edible items in such a box of items or a subscription to such a box.